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Saturday, September 13, 2014

Nigeria’s Growing List of Voodoo Ebola Professors

By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.

Although
Nigeria’s first recorded death from Ebola happened only in July, there’s
already a lengthening list of Nigerian medical science and pharmacology
professors who have persuaded the news media into believing that they are
“experts” who have found herbal cures for the disease.

The
first professor who made headlines over claims of finding a herbal cure for
Ebola is Professor Maurice Iwu, former chairman of the Independent National
Electoral Commission. He initially told the news media that laboratory tests he
conducted in America showed that bitter kola (or is it kola nuts?) could cure
patients afflicted by the Ebola virus. “This is a very exciting discovery,” he
said. “The same forest that yields the dreaded Ebola virus could be a source of
the cure.”

But
in an interview with Channels TV, following a blistering
attack on his claims by Sahara Reporters , Iwu scaled back the magnitude of the
efficacy he ascribed to his herbal “remedy.” He now claims that bitter kola
only “arrests the replication of the Ebola virus,” not cure it. But the initial
claim that bitter kola cures Ebola has already caused many Nigerians to
stockpile the herb.

Then
came a Professor Sunday Aremu Omilabu, described by Sahara Reporters as a
“Consultant Virologist and Ebola expert” at the University of Lagos’ College of
Medicine. Omilabu hasn’t (yet) claimed to have found a cure for Ebola, but he told Sahara
Reporters
that “Ebola virus particles can be transmitted by air” in spite of claims to
the contrary in the broader medical community. His claims are obviously not the
product of any empirical medical research. I searched his name in a comprehensive
database of scholarly medical journals and found no article authored or
co-authored by him on Ebola. Yet he is an “Ebola expert.”

The
latest “Ebola professor” to hypnotize the Nigerian news media with the razzle-dazzle
of the putative curative powers of Nigerian herbs is one Professor Adebukola
Ositelu. The (Nigerian) Sun reported
her to have told participants at a NAFDAC-organized “African Traditional
Medicine Day” on September 4 that ewedu
(known in English as corchorus or jute and in Hausa as rama) can “prevent and cure” Ebola. “To administer the treatment,”
the Sun reported her as saying, “the ewedu should be rinsed thoroughly with
liquid vinegar.” She advised the preparer of the herbal concoction to “blend
and cook with drinkable water, without adding salt or kaun (potash) or any other ingredients; then take a 25cl or half a
tumbler measure once a week, first thing in the morning before any meal for
prevention, adding that those already infected should take it every morning for
seven to five days.”

Ositelu,
mind you, is a professor of ophthalmology, that is, the branch of medicine that
studies the eyes. Yet she is giving elaborate “expert” advice on and
prescription for the cure of Ebola based purely on hunch. This lady is clearly
a “babalawo” professor that doesn’t bother with the pesky protocols of
scientific research before broadcasting results. I wonder what business she has
being a professor of ophthalmology.

I
am sure there are many more professors who have spoken with the news media
about having found herbal remedies for Ebola that I have missed.Even more professors may come forward with
even more bizarre claims in the future.

Everyone
who spares a thought for reversing the scourge of Ebola should be worried by
the growing trend of medical and pharmacological professors addressing the
media about claims of finding cures for Ebola. It is simply irresponsible. If these
people are truly professors in medical science, they should know enough to know
that announcement of cures for diseases isn’t done through media interviews. It
usually follows established protocols—starting from actual empirical research,
to publication of findings in peer-reviewed journals, etc.

Although
Iwu’s bitter-kola trial drug is the product of some preliminary research (13
years ago!), it hasn’t been tested on even mice, not to talk of humans.“Even if this particular drug does not
succeed through the whole drug approval process, we can use it to construct a
new drug for this deadly disease,” Iwu said 13 years ago. Since then,
nothing has happened. The drug didn’t to go through the approval process he
talked about. Yet, Iwu made it seem like he had just made a new discovery this
year.

These
people are an embarrassment to the medical and pharmacological professoriate.
But, even worse, they are a danger to humanity. Because of the social and
cultural capital they wield, the pronouncements of medical and pharmaceutical
professors carry a lot of weight, especially in precarious times such as this.
One of the consequences of their flippant, unsupported, and probably
fraudulent, claims to herbal cures for Ebola is that scores of people may be
led to let down their guards and to be lulled into a false sense of
invincibility on account of eating ewedu,
or bitter kola, or whatever other wacky herbal remedy some other lazy,
attention-seeking voodoo professors may come up with.

To
be sure, it could very well be that kola,
ewedu, and other herbal remedies can indeed cure Ebola, but we can’t know
this for sure until an actual empirical study has been conducted and its
results published in a medium other scientists respect. When a scientist
discovers or suspects he has discovered a cure for a disease, the right thing
to do is to test and publish the discovery, not to rush to the press.

I
think the Nigerian news media also failed their readers and viewers by giving
legitimacy to the uncorroborated, self-indulgent blusters of these glamorized babalawo priests masquerading as
professors. Scientific news, especially news of medical feats, is never
reported solely on the unverified claims of a lone scientist.

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About Me

Dr. Farooq Kperogi is a professor, journalist, newspaper columnist, author, and blogger based in Greater Atlanta, USA. He received his Ph.D. in communication from Georgia State University's Department of Communication where he taught journalism for 5 years and won the top Ph.D. student prize called the "Outstanding Academic Achievement in Graduate Studies Award." He earned his Master of Science degree in communication (with a minor in English) from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and won the Outstanding Master's Student in Communication Award.

He earned his B.A. in Mass Communication (with minors in English and Political Science) from Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria, where he won the Nigerian Television Authority Prize for the Best Graduating Student.

Dr. Kperogi worked as a reporter and news editor, as a researcher/speech writer at the (Nigerian) President's office, and as a journalism lecturer at Kaduna Polytechnic and Ahmadu Bello University before relocating to the United States.

He was the Managing Editor of the Atlanta Review of Journalism History, a refereed academic journal. He was also Associate Director of Research at Georgia State University's Center for International Media Education (CIME).

He is currently an Associate Professor of Journalism and Emerging Media at the School of Communication and Media, Kennesaw State University, Georgia's fastest-growing and third largest university. (Kennesaw is a suburb of Atlanta). He also writes two weekly newspaper columns: "Notes From Atlanta" in the Abuja-based DailyTrust on Saturday (formerly Weekly Trust) and "Politics of Grammar" in the DailyTrust on Sunday (formerly Sunday Trust).

In April 2014 Dr. Kperogi was honored as the Outstanding Alumnus of the University of Louisiana's Department of Communication. His research has also won international awards, such as the 2016 Top-Rated Research Paper Award at the 17th Symposium on Online Journalism at the University of Texas, Austin, USA.